Hi VWF, I'm another Citi Golf owner from South Africa. I drive a 1989 1.8 Citi Sport (was originally a carb but has since been conveted to K-Jetronic FI).
In South Africa the Mk1 Golf was rebranded the Citi Golf way back in the mid-eighties. Herewith is a brief history of how the original Golf became the Citi Golf and how VWSA still manages to pump out +- 1500 of these little gems month after month.
Firstly let me start off by explaining why there are very few 2dr Mk1's in SA:
Research done way back in the eighties showed that the South African market preferred 4dr cars so the Mk1 2dr was discontinued and since then, VWSA have never released a two door car in this country (a small number of Mk4 1600 2-dr Golfs were sold just before run-out stage). The only two door cars in this country from Mk2 and up are the UK imports but they are hard to obtain and are quite pricey.
The sad part is that the Mk1 GTi was only ever available as a 4-dr version in SA and it only arrived in 1983/84, a year before VW launched the Mk2. Note: GTi was written with a small 'i' in SA until the launch of the Mk4, when they finally decided to align with the rest of the world to "GTI".
When the Mk2 was launched in 1984 it was priced at a substantial premium to the Mk1. At the time VWSA didn't have an entry level vehicle (Polo was only launched in the late '90's and the Lupo is to date not available in this Country), so the Mk1 was repackaged/rebranded "Citi Golf" and at the time of launch, it was only available with 1.3 carb engines. Citi Golf's were available only in red, yellow or blue with very basic styling. At the time the Mk1 Jetta was also retained and rebranded "Fox".
It was like the car was re-born cos by 1986 sales showed no sign of slowing down so VWSA launched the 1600L Sport which had the double headlamps but was still only available in red, yellow and blue.
1988 saw the launch of the Citi Golf 1800L Sport (carb engine- I have the '89 version thats been converted to k-jet fuel injection). By now there were thousands of these red,yellow and blue Mk1 Golfs around.
In 1989 VWSA launched the powerful 1800 CTi (with k-jetronic fuel injection). But this car was available in any colour and the same went for the rest of the Citi Golf range. The range also received a revised front-end and larger bumpers around this time (see how the fenders/wings/grill slant backward)and there is an "L" pattern cut into the C-pillar. There was also a Citi Golf Designa available in that year, which was basically a 'build-your-own-Citi-Golf package.
The range until this point in history comprised of the 1.3, 1.6 and 1.8 carb engines plus the CTi - the next product innovation came in 1994 with the Citi Ritz when VWSA celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Citi Golf.
In 1995 VWSA shook up the entry level market and released the Citi Chico which was sold at R1500 cheaper than the cheapest car on the market and by the end of 1995, one in every ten cars bought in SA was a Citi Golf.
Between 1996 - 1999 VWSA launched the Citi Blues, Citi Deco and Citi Sonic. The Deco and Sonic were the most stylish to date (until the arrival of the Velociti in 2004) - these cars came standard with color-coded seats, color coded dials and gauges, gearknobs were only available with 1600 carb engines. Also somewhere in between this period the legendary CTi was dropped from the range *weeps*.
In 2000 the range finally received electronic fuel injection with the introduction of the
Citi Life and the
Citi.com. During this entire period (1985 - 2000) VWSA launched the Mk2, Mk3 and Mk4 Golf's and Jetta's. The Mk1 was still being built on the same tooling as it has been for 20 odd years.
In 2004 VWSA breathed new life into the Citi by giving it a new dashboard, doors, rear hatch with window mounted wiper. The firewall was also strengthend and reinforced (no more clutch cable pulling clean through the flimsy firewall? lol)
Some pix...
This is my Citi in its original paint
and now color coded everything
I have a mag wheel fetish which sees me changing rims every few months
current wheels are these custom 15" Lenso GTR light weights
And she's no slouch either. Our n/a 1800 Mk1's are the only competition for the almighty Civic VTEC's at our local drag strip (competing in the same class)
some pix of neat Mk1's from my neck of the woods. The Euro look never quite took off in my country - there are very few Mk1's slammed to the ground on 13" deep dish rims. The most commonly used styling mod would include a single debadged grill, eyelid, crystal headlamps, a Mk 3 VR6 front spoiler, 17" mag wheels, lowered 60mm front/ 40mm rear.
This is the CTi version, which came with a potent 1800 k-jet engine. They were discontinued in 1995.
This little gem is one of a small batch of Citi's built by Volkswagen Racing. 1.8 20VT Mk1 anyone?
here is my buddy's 2.0 8v race car
last two pics is of the fastest Citi Golf in the world. It featured 2 x 2.0 16VT engines. 0-100 in 3.3sec, 1/4-mile 10.5sec (combined engine power 940hp 1100Nm torque). Not too long ago it clocked 170mph over a standing 800m sprint (about 870 odd yards). Not bad for a aerodynamically challenged Mk1
The twin engine was initially built to compete in hillclimb events and not 1/4-mile drag racing. Besides, where do you find a car that can run 10's and post awesome ring times? A Bugatti Veyron, maybe
Sadly we lost the "double dub" a few weeks ago when a fuel line burst while doing a dyno demonstration. The car burnt to a crisp.
Thats it from me folks. I hope I didn't bore you guys too much with my post. I highly doubt that US safety laws will allow the importing of Mk1's from South Africa to the US (its still 30yo technology) but I won't blame you for trying. Please feel free to ask quesions should you have any.
Mark
Linear Mode
